Storage Ideas for Your Home

These cheap storage ideas will help you find storage space you may have not realised you had. It will help you find a home for each item in your house. And this key home organization secret will guarantee you can find what you need quickly and will take the stress out of cleaning up because you know where to put everything.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that home organization is all about having your drawers, closet, garage or kitchen perfect. No, that is not the important thing. Being able to find what you are looking for when you need it is the most important thing. To help you with this, here are 20 storage ideas:

1. The first storage idea is to store and categorise home storage items that are similar in the same place. 26 Labels Examples are;
   1. Arts and Crafts Supplies
   2. Auto care
   3. Bills to be paid
   4. Baby toys
   5. Baby Clothes (these last two should only be stored if you’re still planning on having more children otherwise…declutter!)
   6. Camera
   7. Camping Gear
   8. CD’s and DVD’s
   9. Children’s work & pictures
   10. Children’s reports
   11. Christmas Decorations
   12. Cosmetics
   13. Financial records
   14. First Aid supplies
   15. Household Tools – screwdrivers, batteries, flashlight, spare globes, shoe cleaning kit
   16. Gardening Supplies
   17. Games
   18. Lunch wrap supplies – gladwrap, foil, brown paper bags, sealable plastic bags, freezer bags, grease proof paper, oven bags etc
   19. Outdoor gear (gum boots, umbrella’s, raincoats)
   20. Party supplies – candles, plastic cutlery, serviettes
   21. Personal documents (birth certificates, passports etc)
   22. Picnic gear
   23. School Photo’s
   24. Stationery supplies (inc. writing paper, gift cards)
   25. Travel kits and bags
   26. Sewing supplies
2. Store items as close to the place where they will be used most often. So for example, keep your mugs and cups close by to the kettle, store your iron where you will be ironing your clothes, if you do exercises in front of the T.V then perhaps store your exercise in a lounge room cupboard or behind the sofa.This is a great storage idea because it limits the amount of searching you need to do for a particular item and allows you do complete tasks quicker.
3. Whether it’s closet storage or kitchen storage, store the items you use most often in the most accessible places. Near the front of a shelf or in the top drawers.
4. Make finding things as easy as storing things. If you use generic storage containers then choosing clear, see-through storage containers means that you can quickly assess if it’s the item you need. This goes for under the bed storage tubs to storage canisters in your pantry. This is also a time saving storage idea.
5. Another cheap storage idea is to give every item a ‘home’. Whenever you acquire new items, you need to allocate a place where it ‘lives’. Once this is known by everyone, it’s very easy to find it next time because it will be where you expect it to be! This is probably one of the best secrets to storage. The idea is to be able to have your house looking neat but also to be able to find things quickly. Every item MUST go back to the same place every time. From your rice cooker and vegetable peeler to the peg bag and sticky tape dispenser!
6. Select cheap storage solutions that match the room or space not because you like the box or basket! I have a house with small rooms, so selecting storage solutions that take up floor space are not really an option. They must be able to fit under the bed or in the closet. They must be stackable and clear and be on wheels so it’s easy to move them around. Know what your house and room needs are before you select your storage options.
7. Use walls for storage wherever you can by putting up shelving, peg-board with various hooks or hooks on the backs of doors. Not only does it free up floor space but can add to the decoration of the room.
8. Thinking of closet storage: In your cupboards with only hanging space, you can move sets of drawers into them to free up floor space. You can also hang towel rods on the inside of cupboard doors for scarves and belts or tablecloths if it’s your linen closet.
9. Under the sink often ends with a lot of unused space between the bottom shelf and the sink above it. Use stackable plastic drawers or stackable wire racks to hold various vegetables or cleaning supplies.
10. Screw mini towel rods inside suitable kitchen cupboards for holding tea-towels, rubber gloves or hand towels.
11. Screw hooks into the ceiling of your kitchen cupboards and hang coffee mugs by their handles.
12. Use large clips or a clipboard on the back of a cabinet door to hang paper bags or placemats.
13. Garage Storage: Out in the garage you can set up hooks and hangers from the ceiling to store items such as bikes. Alternatively, put some boards across the rafters to make a mini mezzanine floor or loft. This is a good place to store seasonal items such as Christmas decorations or lawn furniture. A third option would be to build a high border shelf around the perimeter of the room.
14. If you don’t have room in your cupboards for your potatoes and onions, try hanging a 3 tier basket from your ceiling and place your vegetables in there. It will add to the atmosphere of your kitchen too.
15. For closet storage, use your luggage to store seldom used clothing or seasonal items like diving wetsuits or snow gear.
16. Build shelves or cupboards under stairs.
17. Use or build coffee tables that are enclosed and have cupboards or shelves underneath them to store magazines, CD’s and other items in your lounge room.
18. Hang surround sound speakers on the walls to free up floor space.
19. Use the space behind the sofa and couch to store unsightly or cluttered looking objects that you need handy in the lounge room. For example, our internet cables and phone connections are stored neatly behind our sofa. Throw blankets, extra pillows for movie nights or exercise mats can also be stored neatly in a box behind a couch.
20. Place an attractive dresser that has drawers in the lounge room. It makes a great bench tops for displaying photo’s or vases and the drawers can be used to store DVD’s and CD’s. We did this initially because we didn’t have enough room for ours in the bedroom. It has become our most commented on piece of furniture now!



These storage ideas are just a start to get your imagination going. Don’t forget to share any other storage solutions you may have on the Contact Me page.

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